The most important thing you need to know about this episode of Hannibal is that Hannibal Lecter gets beat up. A lot.
I mean, other stuff happens too, but that’s really the most significant thing. And the beat down comes courtesy of Jack, so he’s basically my hero now. But anyway…
Will and Chiyo’s Excellent Adventure
So — about Will Graham. He’s getting pretty screwed up, right? I mean, if you weren’t sure of that before, this show is ready to give you plenty of reasons to think so. Like when, on this episode, Will asks Chiyo if the murder she committed is on her mind. He’s clearly playing with her, the way a cat does with a mouse or the way Hannibal does with everyone forever.
We learn that Chiyo was Hannibal’s aunt’s aide once upon a time and the woman’s name was Lady Murasaki. And if you don’t know who that is from other Hannibal incarnations … well, I won’t spoil you. Anyway, Chiyo and Will have some deep, meaningful conversations on their train ride together, and they both learn that the other definitely knows where Hannibal is. So it’s a good thing they’re both on the same page with this little trip, right? Wrong!
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During one of their conversations, Chiyo mentions that she thinks Will actually likes violence, whereas she only uses it when necessary. And during a later talk, she repeats that there are, in fact, other ways of gaining influence other than that, and then she appears to be ready to seduce Will. (Can you blame her?)
But instead of going back into their sleeper car for a tryst, Chiyo tricks Will and shoves him off the train. The moving train. She’s kind of a badass. Then Will has a weird vision about the stag sniffing him while he’s lying, somehow mostly unharmed, on the train tracks, and he proceeds to follow it back in the direction opposite of the train. And that’s the last we see of him for the episode.
Jack’s Visit
Jack goes to Italy to find Will, but also to spread his beloved Bella’s ashes in a river there. He also tosses his wedding ring into the water after he releases the remains. I’m not sure why. Is it a sign that he’s singularly focused on the task at hand — finding Will and taking down Hannibal? In any case, he moves onto that work very quickly, paying a visit to Rinaldo Pazzi and his young wife for dinner and to talk Hannibal. I don’t know that they come up with a definitive plan, but Rinaldo then seems to be doing his own thing in regards to the cannibalistic doctor, and he doesn’t come out on the other side unscathed.
A Dangerous Game
Rinaldo meets Hannibal, (or as he’s called now, Dr. Fell), and the two clearly recognize each other but play it off as if they don’t. They talk about Pazzi’s ancestors, one of which was apparently a bad dude who sold someone out for money from the church, I believe. That’s important to know because Hannibal is the one to bring it up, and because a later meeting is arranged thanks to an heirloom from that ancestor.
After that meeting, Rinaldo calls a number used for Hannibal sightings, and brings up the possibility of a bounty. That leads him to speaking with Mason and Alana, and he is promised three million dollars if they can bring back Hannibal Lecter alive. But he needs to get a full fingerprint of the doctor for confirmation, hence, the need to meet up again.
Rinaldo brings the scold’s bridle, an instrument of punishment, from the aforementioned ancestor, and feigns that he thinks Hannibal would be interested in the heirloom. But really, he’s there to get a fingerprint, and after Hannibal shows him a Pazzi heirloom in his collection and turns away after, he snags a knife with a print on it.
Rinaldo’s Fate
And because of course Hannibal knew he would do that, Hannibal comes up behind him with a cloth covered in what I assume is chloroform on it, covers his mouth, and drags him away. When Rinaldo wakes up, his mouth is taped and he’s strapped to a chair, which secures him while Hannibal questions him. He implies that if Pazzi helps him, he might not kill him, or at least eat him. Yay?
But even with the information Hannibal gets from Rinaldo about Mason, along with a call from Alana where she stupidly identifies herself, Hannibal decides to kill the guy anyway. He guts him, like the ancestor they spoke about, and hangs the dude outside a nearby window. It’s a gruesome way to go.
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The Throw-down Showdown
As luck would have it, Rinaldo is dumped out the window just as Jack shows up to investigate his whereabouts. So he’s there just in time to see both the body and Hannibal standing above it. He makes his way inside, and that’s when it all goes down.
With a waltz playing in the background, Hannibal taunts Jack about his wife’s death, implying that he gave her an overdose of medication at the end to kill her. And that’s when Jack loses it.
He starts going after Hannibal, throwing punches, tossing him through random panes of glass, and impaling metalwork into his legs. Jack is an absolutely terrifying figure in this scene, and I love it. I couldn’t help but feel like he was doling out just a little bit of the punishment Hannibal deserves, and it was great to watch.
“How will you feel when I’m gone?” Hannibal asks Jack from his prone, bloodied position on the floor. “Alive,” Jack replies, before knocking Hannibal out the same window Rinaldo fell from. Hannibal grabs the body on his way down, and manages to somehow land on the ground without breaking his ankles or legs.
And that’s it! Basically, anyway. There was some creepy stuff with Mason and Alana, and we learned that somehow Alana knows about Bedelia’s many visits to the same shop to make the same purchase once a week. There’s also some brief scenes between Bedelia and Hannibal, in which Hannibal reveals to her that he knew Pazzi from his youth. But that’s pretty much the gist of all that. So really — the fight scene was the best part, let’s be real.
Will Jack let Hannibal go? And where did Will go? I guess we’ll have to wait until the next episode to find out.
Hannibal airs Thursday nights at 10pm on NBC.
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
